Describe them with everything you have
Le chat noir est petit. Il a deux ans. Il y a trois poissons. Every animal sentence here is Units 1–5 compounding — which is the whole design of the course.
Les animaux — twelve animals and pets
Cat, dog, bird, fish, rabbit, horse — twelve animal nouns with articles, from le chat you met in the sound lessons to l’oiseau with its vowel elision. Animals are the friendliest describing targets there are: small, big, black, white, two years old, all yours already.
The words
| French | English | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| le chat | the cat | luh SHAH |
| le chien | the dog | luh SHYA(n) |
| l’oiseau | the bird | lwah-ZOH |
| le poisson | the fish | luh pwah-SOH(n) |
| le lapin | the rabbit | luh lah-PA(n) |
| le cheval | the horse | luh shuh-VAHL |
| la vache | the cow | lah VAHSH |
| le cochon | the pig | luh koh-SHOH(n) |
| la souris | the mouse | lah soo-REE |
| l’oursthe s IS pronounced — a rare one | the bear | LOORS |
| le canard | the duck | luh kah-NAHR |
| la tortue | the turtle | lah tor-TEW |
Respellings follow the course’s say-it key; the stressed syllable is in capitals. Print this lesson’s flashcards (PDF) — the words on the front, the English and respelling on the back.
Hear the words
Each word is read twice — say it back in the gap. Computer-generated voice; credits on the course page.
Do it now — on paper
- Describe a pet you know in three sentences (name, size or color, age).
- Sort the twelve animals into le / la / l’ columns from memory.
- Play twenty questions in French-lite: C’est un animal. Il est grand…
This free course is the reading half. The writing half — write-in lessons, daily practice pages with built-in review, self-checks and a full answer key — is the companion workbook series, The French Ladder: one workbook per module, fifteen in all, released band by band with the Basic band (Modules 1–5) first.
Keep these words
Turn this lesson’s words into flashcards, then space your reviews — the two habits the research behind our study guides backs hardest.
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